The Promises We Made
by prouvaires
Summary: An unusual little baby is left out in the woods. When Seth finds her and takes her back to the Cullens', she is the source of some very considerable damage. But what is she? Because she's definitely not human. TITLE CHANGE FROM 'LIMITLESS
1. Baby Found

**The idea hit me like a ton of bricks, except in a nice way :D**

**Breaking Dawn spoilers, you have been warned!**

I am the forgotten. I am the unwanted.

That's why they left me. I entered the world, and twenty minutes later a man laid me down on the cold, wet ground and left me, wrapped in nothing more than an old, scratchy blanket. I never saw the face of the woman that bore me, nor heard her voice.

The baby watched with unfocused blue eyes as the grey sky was blocked out by stark black trees. The feet belonging to the man carrying her trudged over old leaves, churning up more mud. He was afraid – his heartbeat was fast, and the baby could see his short breaths clouding the frozen air. She shivered, and his harsh voice grated out, his meaning unclear but the intent was derived when he gave her a small shake.

She blinked unhappily as he stopped and pulled her away from his warmth. He laid no kiss on her brow, but flung her to the ground as an unwanted article of clothing, then turned and walked away without a second thought. He didn't look back. So the baby was left, her tiny body turning to ice as she lay there.

She started to cry, of course. Anyone would. She was left naked, newborn and hungry in a cold, cruel world with no protector to keep her warm or feed her. Her cries grew louder and more insistent, her small arms waving in the air in dramatic protest against her treatment.

In the distance, a giant sandy wolf checked his stride. He swung his head, catching the scent of human blood on the breeze. He paused, torn with indecision. But his curiosity warred against his hunger, and so he turned and followed his nose. The rain started to fall thick and fast as he ran. He squinted against it, increasing his speed so as to be back under cover as soon as he could. He almost lost the scent at one point, but a weak cry gave him an indication of direction and he followed it.

He had no thought as he ran, only wondering what person was lying bleeding in the woods on this cold day. When he reached the clearing, he froze dead. A human baby lay, covered in the mess of her birth, wailing. He padded softly towards her, unable to smell any other humans nearby. He listened hard, but no footsteps could be heard. Neither could he hear the voices in his head, so the others were all phased into their human forms.

He approached her, and her crying stopped when he entered her line of vision. She gazed at him with bright blue eyes as he circled her. She was freezing, he noted as he examined her. He put his nose up against her and blew warm breath across her small body. She shivered in reaction, and a small growl escaped from his throat. He knew what he had to do. He reached with his jaws to his back leg and tore the trousers that were bound with a piece of string from it, then phased human, standing up at the exact right time.

"It's okay, little one," he murmured as he pulled the trousers on. Then he picked her up and cradled her to his warm bare chest. She whimpered and shivered more, and he tucked her close to him with one arm and set off at a run to the nearest habitation.

He burst through the front door of the house without a second thought, calling out.

"Bella? Jake? Carlisle?"

No-one appeared, and he cursed. Then he heard a tinkling voice carry down the stairs, and in a flash of bronze curls and pale, glowing skin Renesmee danced into his field of vision.

"Seth?"

"Nessie!" he sighed in relief, and she laughed.

"What have you found now, Seth?" she asked in exasperation. He chucked her under the chin. At the rough age of fifteen, she was firmly eschewing her short childhood, and so she ducked away as fast as she could, disappearing for a short second then reappearing a few feet away almost instantaneously.

"I found a baby," he told her, holding out the child carefully. The baby blinked again and focused her eyes on Renesmee, who gasped in wonder.

"She's so pretty!" she said, trying to prise the baby away from Seth. Seth was still considerably stronger than her, though, so he managed to keep a hold of the baby.

"Where is everyone?" he asked Renesmee, who was distracted from staring at the baby. Her warm brown eyes peeked up at him through impossibly long lashes.

"Hunting," she informed him. "I didn't want to go, I hunted with Jake yesterday."

"And that's all you did while you were out, was it?" he teased gently, and she gave him a shove on the arm.

"C'mon, Seth, you know he's not like that!"

"He's not, but I'm beginning to think you might be."

She didn't reply to his comment, but instead appraised the baby for a second.

"I think we should wash her before the others get back. You know, for the blood and everything."

Seth smiled. "That's a really good idea – probably the best you've had in a while. Where's your bath?"

She grinned. "Do you want mine, Mom and Dad's, Esme and Carlisle's, or Alice and Jasper's? I would offer you Rosalie and Emmett's but they broke it again."

Seth laughed. "Let's use the kitchen sink instead. It's more manageable."

She nodded her agreement. "'kay."

They made their way through into the huge kitchen and Renesmee turned on the taps of the sink. Seth unwrapped the baby from her blanket, his hands keeping her warm. She was watching everything in apparent amazement, her eyes flicking from the glittering silver taps to the pale ceiling; from Renesmee's subtly glowing skin to Seth's shaggy black hair; from the huge white fridge to the black stove-top. Seth grinned as Renesmee helped him direct the water over the baby's small body, washing her clean. She opened her mouth to cry in protest, but then shut it again because the two had finished and Renesmee disappeared off upstairs. Seth held the baby against his warm chest, helping her to dry off a little. Then Renesmee reappeared with a fluffy white towel and carefully wrapped her up in it, then handed her back to Seth.

"Nessie?" A man's voice called and an instant later Edward appeared in the doorway of the kitchen. "Oh hi, Seth."

He came closer, then caught the baby's warm scent.

"Whoa …" he froze dead. "Bella?" He called softly. She was at his side in an instant, her expression wary.

"What is it? Oh my God, Seth, what is that?"

"Um, a baby?" Seth had great difficulty in refraining from making a 'duh' noise, but Edward caught his eye with a smirk, so Seth battled it down.

"Yes, but where did you find it?" Bella pressed, her face a picture of confusion.

"In the woods. I was running when I smelled the blood on her and then I found her. Nessie and I thought it would be a good idea to wash her before you guys got back."

Edward nodded, and was taking a step forward when Carlisle came into the room.

"Did I hear correctly? Seth has a _baby_?" he asked incredulously. He didn't wait for an answer, however, and prised the small child from Seth, conducting a quick examination of her. "She seems alright, but she's very young, only a few hours old."

The rest of the Cullen family had pressed into the room in the short space of time, and Seth felt himself pushed back against the worktops.

"Can we keep her, dad?" He heard Renesmee pleading, and Edward turned to Carlisle.

"What do you think?" he asked in a low voice. All ears and eyes in the room flicked instantly towards Carlisle. He turned to Bella with a smile.

"Shall we put it to the vote?" he asked her, and she grinned back.

"I think that's a very democratic idea," she told him, and so the whole family moved into the dining room. Carlisle took the chair at the head of the table, Esme on his right and Seth on his left, holding the baby.

"So, we'll vote on whether we keep the baby or turn her over to human authorities. All those in favour of keeping her raise their hands."

Everyone raised their hand. Carlisle chuckled.

"I think that's the decision."

He grinned at Seth, and Renesmee jumped onto the table and conducted a mad victory dance, much to everyone's amusement.

"You do realise we'll have to change her eventually?" Edward murmured in a low voice to Carlisle, whose brow furrowed.

"Let's not think of cross that bridge until we come to it," he replied quietly.

And so one short hour after I was born I found acceptance with mythical creatures. Perhaps not the ideal situation, but none of them realised at that point how truly different I was from them and humans too. I would show them.

No longer am I one of the sadly fallen. I have been raised among angels, and angel wings will support me forever.


	2. Identity Realised

I change, I grow, my powers condense.

Maybe soon they'll be able to tell me why I am as I am.

~x~

The child grew fast, but only half as fast as Renesmee had. No-one expected it, but they had dealt with the same sort of thing before, so they measured her regularly and watched her grow.

Her intelligence and mental age grew at the same rate as her body, so apart from her remarkable growth there was no indication of any particular anomaly within her.

The first clue that something was very different about her was when a loud bang came from the room she was playing in. The whole family rushed to the room, and the then six-year-old was sitting in the middle of the room looking utterly innocent, surrounded by pieces of what had been furniture.

Then when she somehow ended up hanging from the light in the sitting room, despite having been left on the sofa watching cartoons.

There were many examples of strangeness, but it wasn't until she was the rough age of fifteen, about ten years after she was found in the woods, that the truly remarkable thing happened. A thing so strange even the _vampires _were shocked.

"Esme!" the exasperated teenager shouted up the stairs, very well aware that she would be heard even if she whispered, but so angry she didn't care.

"What do you want, Scar?" Esme asked, appearing at the top of the stairs.

"Rosalie took my nicest shoes _again_!" Scarlett complained hotly, and Esme sighed.

"Rosalie, give Scarlett her shoes back."

Rosalie put her head out from the sitting room. "No, they look too fabulous with this outfit."

Scarlett gritted her teeth against the power she felt rising in her. It often happened, but she had learnt as she grew up that her family became confused and sometimes distressed when she lost control, so she tried very hard to battle it down. However, it was one of those days where everything is going badly, and Scarlett was in a very poor temper even before Rosalie got involved.

"Rosalie, I'm warning you," Esme said, running down the stairs and into the sitting room. Scarlett followed, her fists clenched. Rosalie glanced Scarlett up and down.

"She could never pull these shoes off. She's too _human_."

"I am sure as hell not _too human _for anything!" Scarlett exploded, and leapt for Rosalie. Esme jumped back, utterly shocked. Scarlett had _never _attempted to use physical violence against any of her family, knowing how useless that course of action would be.

"Carlisle! Emmett!" she called, knowing the two were around. She watched in dismay as Rosalie lifted Scarlett right off her feet and flung her across the room, causing her to crash into the shutters of their new house. Scarlett leapt back to her feet, and Rosalie charged. But something caught her and held her in place. She was halted, completely surprised, as Scarlett thrust out a hand out and froze her where she was. Rosalie could move her whole body, but she was unable to get past the invisible barrier Scarlett had created.

"_Carlisle_, now!" Esme called, one hand where her heart should be. Carlisle entered the room, then stopped dead. Scarlett was advancing towards Rosalie, who was still pinned hopelessly.

"_Don't _steal my shoes," Scarlett warned, and with a beckoning finger the shoes flew off Rosalie's feet and landed neatly next to her. Rosalie screamed in outrage. Emmett sprinted into the room and crashed right into Carlisle.

"Whoa, sorry. Why'd Rosalie scream?" he wanted to know, watching as his wife struggled with apparent thin air. Scarlett was insolently slipping the shoes on. As she glanced up at Rosalie, her green eyes flashed bronze and then back to green. Emmett crossed the room quickly and gathered Rosalie to him, restraining her. Behind Carlisle and Esme, the front door crashed open, and Renesmee bounded into the room.

"Excellent, are we having a party?" she wanted to know, dancing over to Scarlett, who had her lips pulled back over her teeth in a soundless snarl as Rosalie struggled.

"Scar, let Rosalie go," Carlisle commanded firmly, moving towards the most unusual of his four adopted daughters. With a quick glance at Carlisle, Scarlett sighed and released Rosalie from the bind. Emmett caught Rosalie to him and took her out of the room. Two seconds later, the front door banged shut.

"Sit down," Carlisle said, pointing at the sofa. As Scarlett sat, her face mutinous, Carlisle and Esme took seats opposite her.

"How did you do that, honey?" Carlisle asked gently, gazing intently at Scarlett.

"Dunno. I just feel the power rising in me and I can't stop it. Most of the time I can't control it, but this morning I could."

"So you've had this … this _power _for a while now?" Carlisle wanted to know, leaning in closer, his face hungry for new information. Scarlett just shrugged.

"I guess. As long as I can remember. It's not all I can do though, holding people in place like that."

"What else can you do?" Carlisle asked.

"When I'm angry and out of control I break stuff. But usually I can fix it before anyone notices. And I can … when I really, _really _focus I can morph into certain animals."

Carlisle and Esme just gazed at her, dumbstruck. "You can … you can change into animals? Which ones?" Esme's voice was quiet and amazed. Scarlett thought quickly.

"Well, so far, I've been able to change into mammals. Like dogs and cats and horses and stuff."

"Do you know why you can do all this?" Carlisle asked, having regained some powers of speech.

"Nope. I often wondered, though. I mean, my parents must have been human, or they wouldn't have left me. So maybe I was touched by some crazy, forgotten God or something." She shrugged again to indicate her lack of knowledge, and then started shifting where she sat.

"Uh, I need to go to school now. I'll see you later, 'kay?"

"Okay, sweetie. We'll see you this afternoon," Esme said, nudging Carlisle as he sat, lost in thought.

"What? Oh yes, see you later, Scar," Carlisle said, leaning over to kiss her forehead and then descending back into thought again. Scarlett waved at them through the front window as she headed off to school with Renesmee, Bella and Edward.

"What is she?" Esme asked, crossing back over the room to her husband.

"Come upstairs with me. I need to find a book."

"There's a surprise," Esme said with a laugh, and took Carlisle's hand as they ran up the stairs together.

He ran his hands over the rows of titles on the west wall of his study as Esme took a seat on the sofa, leaning into the soft cushions.

"Ah, here it is," Carlisle said softly and pulled out an old, leather-bound book and crossed the room to sit next to his wife. She settled against him as he flicked rapidly through the pages.

"Yes, I thought so …" he murmured as his eyes darted across a particular paragraph.

"What?" Esme asked, looking at the page as his finger traced the words.

"There's an old legend about a special type of child. He or she will be born from a werewolf and a Shifter, and – "

"A what?"

"A Shifter. A human-like creature who can shape-shift into any animal they like. And only five children like this can be alive at any one time, so they are usually fiercely protected by all those who know about them. It's amazing that Scarlett hasn't been tracked yet."

"Are there people searching for her?" Esme queried, automatically anxious for her daughter. Carlisle pressed a gentle kiss to her forehead.

"They'd have found her by now. So they can't be looking for her, or we'd know about it."

"What powers will she have?"

"Assuming, of course, that Scar _is _one of these once-in-a-lifetime children, she's already demonstrated one of her powers and told us about two others. She can manipulate the elements to achieve what she desires, whether it be destruction or repair, as she said. And she can shape-shift. Of the five children, each has a particular type of animal they can change into. So there'll be one who can change into birds, one who can change into amphibians, one reptiles, one fish, and one mammals."

"Fish?" Esme asked, looking slightly amused.

"It sounds pretty pointless but as these five children are often collected and pressed into service, a child who can survive underwater would be just as useful as one who can spy from the air."

"They're forced to be fighters?"

"That's why they're protected, to stop them being controlled and used for the wrong things. They are automatically drawn to each other once they reach their eleventh and final year of growth, at which point they stop ageing and become fully in control of their powers. It appears that we've ended up with the mammal-child."

"So next year she'll want to leave us?"

"No, they don't deliberately decide to leave, they just 'happen' upon each other. But bear in mind that since these children were first discovered they're always raised alone or at least half-feral. Scarlett's grown up in a family that loves and supports her, so she should be kept here by strong emotional ties."

"Unless Rosalie steals her shoes again," Esme commented, and they both laughed.

"Yes."

"I really love her, Carlisle. I don't ever want to lose her. She's more our daughter than Bella or Rose or Alice, because we've raised her from a baby and helped to make her who she is. All our other children joined us once they were grown and had their own definite characters before they became a part of the family."

"Which is why she is tied here much more strongly than any of the others. I mean, look. Alice and Jazz are away at the moment and Rose and Em are leaving shortly too for their next honeymoon."

"Do you think we could persuade Ed and Bella to go away with Nessie for a while? It might be easier for Scar to find all this out if she's alone and has us all to herself for a few days."

"That's a good idea," Carlisle said, putting down the book and wrapping his arms around his wife. "Let's talk to them this evening."

~x~

That afternoon at around one Carlisle and Esme had just returned from their hunting trip and were sitting quietly in the front room when they caught a flash of long brown hair out of the corner of their eyes. Esme hurried to the window, and about a second later the front door crashed open and shut, and they heard pounding footsteps accompanied by sobs disappearing up the stairs.

"Scar?" Carlisle called, rushing to the bottom of the stairs. A door upstairs was slammed shut, so Carlisle sprinted up the stairs to outside Scarlett's door.

"Scar, open the door."

"Go _away_!" she shouted from inside, and there was a loud crash. Carlisle sighed.

"Scarlett, what happened? Has someone hurt you?"

"_Yes_!" She screamed, and there was a smashing noise accompanied by the tinkling sound of broken glass. Carlisle tried again.

"Scarlett Rebecca Cullen, open this door or I'll break it down."

There was no response apart from a swear word, so Carlisle, with another sigh, pushed the door open easily.

Scarlett was standing in the middle of the room, her long hair whipping about her white face in an unnatural breeze, her cheeks stained with tears. The bay window that looked out onto the huge lawn behind the house had smashed totally, the curtains had been ripped from their hangings and there were several broken ornaments lying in pieces on the floor.

Carlisle crossed the room quickly and pulled his daughter into his arms, rocking her gently. She resisted at first, but then turned her face and sobbed into his chest, gulping as she tried to regain control of herself. Carlisle drew her over to the bed and sat down on it next to her.

"What happened, honey?"

"Jared …" sniff "broke up with me" sniff "in front of the whole school," she sobbed, not raising her head. Carlisle stroked her hair gently.

"Why, sweetie? Tell me everything."

"He tried to make me have sex with him and I didn't want to, so I accidentally broke a window next to his head and it cut him, and then he started yelling and he dragged me outside to break up with me … I couldn't fight him because then everyone would know about my powers and we would have to leave again."

She was crying again by the time she finished speaking, and Carlisle was feeling the familiar stirrings of overprotective anger that only could only ever be evoked in him when his youngest daughter was hurt or threatened.

"Esme," he called quietly, aware that this was more a mother's problem than a father's.

"No," Scarlett said, pushing him away suddenly. "I don't want to be fussed over. I just want to lie here in the dark and cry."

"That might be difficult, Scar, because you broke your curtains."

Scarlett raised her head to look at the curtains, and the corner of her mouth twitched in amusement just as Esme appeared in the doorway.

"What's the matter, honey?" she asked, coming to sit on Scarlett's other side.

"My ex-boyfriend is a dickhead," Scarlett said, and Carlisle grinned as Esme remonstrated with her about her language. He decided to leave Esme to it, as Scarlett would probably be more forth-coming about her issues without her overprotective father present.

~x~

That night Emmett and Rosalie had just left for the airport and Carlisle was attempting, successfully, to persuade Edward and Bella to take Renesmee to see Jake and Seth back in Forks, on the other side of the country.

Edward and Bella took Nessie with them to put to bed in their little cottage about two miles away to discuss taking a holiday, leaving Carlisle reading in the front room and Esme watching an old black-and-white film on the television. It was Carlisle's night off from the local hospital, so he was taking the opportunity to relax.

At about three am, however, they heard the soft pitter-patter of feet on the stairs and Scarlett came into the room, wearing her baggy care-bear pyjamas and carrying her duvet with her.

"I can't sleep," she announced and snuggled up on the sofa next to Carlisle. "Watcha reading, Dad?"

"Just a medical book," he said, putting it down. Esme smiled and continued to watch the characters on the screen.

"So why couldn't you sleep?" Carlisle asked. Scarlett frowned.

"I was having a strange dream. It was about a boy. He was very familiar but very strange at the same time – it felt like I'd known him forever but I'd never seen him before. It just weirded me out because for the last couple of weeks I've been having dreams about the same four people, and I've never seen any of them before."

Carlisle glanced quickly at Esme, who gazed solemnly back. "We need to tell her," Esme said quietly, and Carlisle nodded, frowning slightly.

"Well, Scar, your mother and I discovered something about who you are this morning, and it would account for your dreams. We would like to tell you why it is you can do all the things you can do."

Scarlett sat, round-eyed, as Carlisle began to explain about the five children.

~x~

They know, they are telling me everything.

My powers aren't god-given, they're my inheritance. I _am _special. I'm _not _human.


End file.
